Melbourne bot Garden
25/7/70.
The Phormium seeds & other kinds, dear Dr Hector, announced as being sent by the mail,1 did not arrive either by the Gothenburg or through the Post Office. I suppose they will yet come. Now by the Gothenburg I despatch to you a glass case with
10 Cinchona officinalis
10 Thea Chinensis
8 Quercus Castanea
The Cinchonas ought to go to Auckland, and even there they will succumb, unless they were planted into the warm sheltered fern gullies, as explained by me in one of your journals some years ago.2 It would be a sin, if they are lost, as the plants are several years old, fine strong plants, which may flower next summer, if justice is done them. The intelligent & zealous Mr Kirk asked me for Cinchonas. So perhaps you will at least entrust some to his care.
Please return the case to me with any of the following plants:
Cyathea dealbata
— medullaris
— Cunninghami3
— Smithii
Alsophila colensoi.
Dicksonia squarrosa
— lanata
Loxsoma Cunninghami4
Davallia Novae Zealandiae
Pteris scaberula
— macilenta
Lomaria filiformis
Lomaria elongta
— Fraseri
— Banksii
Lygodium articulatum
Leptopteris pellucida
Lycopodium volubile.
Any of these will be useful for my conservatories or for interchanges abroad.
I can send you Tea, additional Oaks of America, Cork oaks, some Hickories. So this case may pass to & fro, but it ought to cost us no freight.
your regardful
Ferd. von Mueller
Alsophila colensoi
Cinchona officinalis
Cyathea Cunninghami
Cyathea dealbata
Cyathea Smithii
Davallia Novae Zealandiae
Dicksonia lanata
Dicksonia squarrosa
Leptospteris pullucida
Lomaria Banksii
Lomaria elongta
Lomaria filiformis
Lomaria Fraseri
Loxsoma Cunninghami
Lycopodium volubile
Lygodium articulatum
Phormium
Pteris macilenta
Pteris scaberella
Quercus Castanea
Thea Chinensis
Letter not found.
M to 'Lanka', March 1868 (in this edition as 68-03-00b), quoted in a letter to the editor Wellington independent, 14 April 1868 (B68.04.06), and copied as B68.04.07.
C. Cunninghamii?
L. Cunninghamii?
Annotated, 'Recd & ans 7/8/70' (letter not found) and, written across the letter diagonally, 'Mr Buch[anan] to put the plants [...]' [John Buchanan, botanist and draughtsman at Museum].
Please cite as “FVM-70-07-25a,” in Correspondence of Ferdinand von Mueller, edited by R.W. Home, Thomas A. Darragh, A.M. Lucas, Sara Maroske, D.M. Sinkora†, J.H. Voigt† and Monika Wells accessed on